Hermit in the Mountains

Gu Changsheng withdrew his gaze and glanced at the big yellow dog squatting on the ground. "Big Yellow, we're having fish today."

As if it understood, Dahuang looked up at Gu Changsheng and wagged its tail in response.

"Woof...woof...woof..."

Gu Changsheng strode into the kitchen, opened the bag Yang Dashan had brought, and tore off the plastic wrap one by one, revealing four tilapia about the size of four fingers.

The fish had already been cleaned and salted before being brought up the mountain.

He picked up a ladle, scooped water from a large plastic bucket, poured it into a vegetable washing basin, washed off the excess salt from the four fish, and placed them in a bamboo basket to dry.

He turned and walked to the stove, sat on the wooden stool, and started a fire.

An hour later, on the small round dining table in the kitchen were two bowls of soup noodles, one large and one small, four golden-fried tilapia, and four golden-yellow poached eggs.

Gu Changsheng sat down at the dining table with a bottle of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce in his hand. Looking at the big yellow dog, who was eagerly waiting with a stainless steel bowl in its mouth, he joked, "Big Yellow, you're really eager to eat."

He watched as Big Yellow wagged its tail rapidly, "Put down the bowl, I'll serve you the food myself."

Dahuang quickly lowered its head, put down the dog bowl, sat upright, panted, and swept its tail left and right on the ground.

Gu Changsheng picked up the small bowl of noodles and poured them into the big yellow bowl. He then added a poached egg, two fish heads, and two fish tails to the big yellow bowl as a treat.

"It has a beginning, an end, and an egg; eat it."

He added two spoonfuls of classic Lao Gan Ma chili sauce to the noodle soup and immediately started eating.

Only after seeing its owner start eating did Dahuang eagerly lower its head to eat.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Gu Changsheng held Da Huang by the fireplace in the living room, stroking Da Huang's soft fur with his right hand.

Dahuang lay on Gu Changsheng's legs, feeling comfortable all over, as if a warm breeze was caressing it.

What it didn't know was that the warmth was a reaction caused by Gu Changsheng's Dao Seed autonomously absorbing spiritual energy, some of which passed through its dog body, nourishing and strengthening its blood and qi.

It is unaware of how lucky it is, enjoying the spiritual nourishment that countless people dream of.

If it is frequently nourished by spiritual energy, its body will become stronger and its mind will become smarter. It may even transform into a spiritual dog and become the first dog to embark on the path of cultivation.

From then on, they reached the pinnacle of their dog life.

Gu Changsheng gazed at the snow falling outside the wooden door, but his mind was preoccupied with how to make money quickly, his next cultivation plan, and when to go to the city.

Go into the mountains to search for treasures, looking for old wild herbs. A 50-year-old wild ginseng can easily sell for hundreds of thousands, or even millions.

He could also try to see if herbs could speed up his cultivation.

Planting Chinese medicinal herbs can also be included in the plan. He can draw on spiritual energy to cultivate the herbs and see if he can transform them into spiritual medicines.

Finding wild herbs and trying to cultivate spiritual medicines can be sold for the cultivation resources you need, or it can be used to prepare for alchemy, achieving multiple benefits in one fell swoop.

The Qinling Mountains stretch for 1600 kilometers and serve as a "natural gene bank" where plants from the north and south meet. They are home to tens of thousands of species of higher plants, among which "Salvia miltiorrhiza" is a representative of "Qin medicine".

The Qinling Mountains have the largest output and the best quality, and the nationally recognized authentic medicinal materials include Salvia miltiorrhiza, Gastrodia elata, rhubarb, musk, and Fraxinus chinensis.

There are also the unique "Taibai Seven Herbs" of the Qinling Mountains, such as Panlongqi, Feitianqi, Taibai Rice, Taibai Tea, and Taibai Ginseng;

It also contains rare and precious medicinal herbs, such as Fritillaria thunbergii, Paris polyphylla, Panax quinquefolius, and Clematis chinensis.

The plan to sell and cultivate Chinese medicinal herbs can be implemented, but alchemy is probably not feasible yet, as Gu Changsheng has not yet developed magical power and cannot generate spiritual fire for alchemy.

If he has time, he can try the pressure cooker alchemy method that's been circulating online.

Speaking of alchemy, he thought of a safe and sustainable way to make money: incense making.

They use wild spices to make their fragrances, targeting the high-end market.

You can also try to draw spiritual energy to nourish the finished incense, enhance its efficacy, and create a unique reputation.

In China, there is no unified market price for top-tier luxury goods. As long as someone buys a stick of incense costing tens of thousands of yuan, it is considered a compliant transaction price.

He can also set a new price for the next transaction. This is the phenomenon of scarce resources having a market but no price. Every transaction requires negotiation to determine the price.

Making incense and finding wild medicinal herbs are the fastest and safest ways to monetize your business.

Even if someone discovers that Chinese herbs and incense have excellent effects, even if someone comes to him, he can attribute the outstanding effects to the raw materials picked from the depths of the Qinling Mountains.

Anyway, he doesn't have the secret recipe for making incense, so it doesn't matter who comes. As long as he doesn't admit it, no one will be able to discover the residual spiritual energy inside.

Traditional Chinese medicine and incense making can help resolve financial issues.

A self-created method to resolve the cycle of life and death in one's destiny;

Ten acres of mountain land can also be considered "land";

"Lover" probably can't find like-minded people these days, and he's not following the traditional path of cultivation, so it's better for him to cultivate alone.

The Yin Spirit provides the external cheat code "Comprehension";

Having no relatives or friends, he now only has the thought of "cultivating immortality and achieving longevity," which is his "Daoist heart."

He possesses the innate talent of a "wood spirit root".

Rounding down, he could be considered a rare genius with exceptional spiritual roots, one in ten thousand miles.

As for the 'concentration of spiritual energy' and 'opportunities and luck' in the external environment, these are beyond his control.

With a general plan in mind, Gu Changsheng came to his senses and went to his bedroom to get his phone, notebook, and ballpoint pen.

Sitting by the stove, I began researching the growing environment of Qinling herbs, methods for identifying herbs, methods for making incense, and the prices of various wild herbs and incense products.

Shops selling wild herbs and incense in Chang'an City.

Time passed by unnoticed. At six o'clock in the afternoon, Gu Changsheng finished his dinner and tended to the farmland.

After instructing Da Huang to keep an eye on the door, he returned to his bedroom to continue his cultivation.

On the warm wooden bed, Gu Changsheng sat cross-legged, closed his eyes to rest, and his Yin spirit entered the Dao seed in his middle dantian.

In an instant, a suction force appeared around him, drawing in the invisible spiritual energy of heaven and earth to his side.

His goal was clear: to absorb wood elemental energy first, followed by elemental energy without attributes and water and earth elemental energy.

Within an hour, the wood elemental energy within a ten-meter radius was completely absorbed, and it was very slow for wood elemental energy to re-enter areas further away.

He then turned to absorbing the elemental energy of water and soil, which had no inherent attributes.

Unbeknownst to them, the pure white moon hung directly in the sky, and strands of "Imperial Dew," formed from the moon's radiance, fell upon the earth to nourish all things.

Gu Changsheng sensed the deadly attraction emanating from the pure moonlight power, and he couldn't help but pull a wisp of moonlight power to his side.

He had never felt such a strong urge to devour the power of the moonlight before.

The power of the Yin spirit slowly enveloped a wisp of moonlight power. In an instant, he hummed in agreement. The moonlight power was extremely heavy, equivalent to ten times the weight of wood spirit energy, and it was very difficult to draw it in.

When he drew a wisp of moonlight into his body and into the vortex of energy around his Dao Seed, Dao Zhong couldn't wait to begin absorbing the moonlight.

The speed of refining the power of moonlight was ten times slower. It was unknown how much time had passed before a wisp of moonlight power was finally swallowed by the Dao Seed.

In an instant, a thin crack appeared on the emerald green outer shell of the seed, allowing the light of the green sprout to shine through.